They’ll thank her later

The best way to quit smoking — a habit as lethal and addictive as almost any other — is to never start in the first place.

So credit is due to Democratic mayoral frontrunner and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn for pushing to raise the city’s age for legally purchasing cigarettes from 18 to 21.

About 80% of city smokers started before 21. And research indicates that it is in late adolescence, around the age of 20, that smoking hardens into a habit, leading later in life to ills like heart disease, emphysema and cancer.

Not only that, but about 90% of those asked by minors to illegally buy cigarettes are themselves between 18 and 21.

While the smoking rate for public high school students fell by half between 2001 and 2007, it has not moved since. That’s in large part because cigarettes are still far too easy obtain.

Quinn and Health Commissioner Thomas Farley believe that hiking the legal purchase age can slash youth smoking rates by 55% for those between 18 and 20 and by 67% for those between 14 and 17.

Each percentage point represents hundreds if not thousands of lives spared addiction, pain and premature death.

They’ll thank her later